Bittersweet Return
by Jubieee
Summary: After 2 years in Paris, Ichigo and the 3 Sweet Princes are ready to go back to Japan. On the day of Kashino's birthday, she overhears that he has to break up with her due to his parent's request. What happens when she decides to transfer back to the Paris campus again for a year or two then come back to Japan? Will it be a Bittersweet Return?


**Hi y'all! Sorry I took forever to come back...So I've decided that I would re-write this story. I hope you guys will like it! Enjoy!**

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Trying to bake at 2 o'clock in the morning is not the best thing to do. Well for some people it could be okay, but most definitely not Amano Ichigo.

"Ouch!" Ichigo said burning her arm, again, against a hot baking pan.

She was making a special sweet for Kashino's birthday, which she had to do last minute because of the demands made by Henri-sensei. Making something on special occasions such as birthdays were a 'tradition' for the Ichigo and the sweet princes, they had started ever since they came to Paris. Mainly because they were pâtissières and they were barely allowed out of the academy. To be honest, Ichigo wouldn't want anything other than her friends making her sweets, even if they could leave the academy more often.

"Ichigo," Vanilla yawned, "Don't you think it's time to go to bed?"

"I can't! It's for Kashino's birthday!" Ichigo said shaking her head, "Although you can sleep if you want. I'll carry you back to bed when I'm done."

Vanilla was hesitant, knowing that there was a change that Ichigo would forget to bring her back, or fall asleep herself. Vanilla decided to shrug it off, she was too tired to stay awake with Ichigo, and definitely too tired to fly back herself. She laid down and closed her eyes, listening closely to the sound of whisking. In just 2 years, she had learned so much. She might have even surpassed the sweet princes, but Ichigo didn't believe in herself. Chocolat even admitted to the big change in Ichigo's skills after the 1st year. Of course, her grades were still far behind the 3 boys.

As Vanilla gradually fell asleep, Ichigo began to put finishing touches on the desserts for Kashino's birthday. Putting on the frosting and chocolate she had just whisked and tempered.

"There!" She said putting the deserts in the fridge to chill. Her head had beads of sweat and hair sticking to it too. Mixing and baking - believe it or not- took up a lot of energy.

"Ah, I'm so tired!" Ichigo sighed, gently scooping up Vanilla and carrying her back to the dorm. It was a satisfying feeling of being finished with Kashino's birthday surprise, she had been planning it since his last birthday. Ichigo remembered their first kiss on his birthday, and how they decided to go out a few weeks later. She remembered his cold personality gradually melting and beginning to warm up with every date or talk they had. His kisses were sweet, just like chocolate, which always made Ichigo giggle afterwards; he was the chocolate prince after all. Her chocolate prince. She put Vanilla onto her bed and pulled the covers over her and turned off their lamp.

"I just can't wait for tomorrow!" She said quietly, but with enthusiasm, careful not to wake up Vanilla. She would be scolded for sure. She looked over to her alarm clock to see it was already 4 in the morning,

"Well, at least later today."

"Good night," Ichigo said to no one in particular, maybe to the room itself.

"I hope he'll enjoy my sweets." Ichigo said, murmuring to herself as she slowly began to doze off.

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 _Beep….Beep… Beep…_

"Stop…" Ichigo groaned as she tried to reach her alarm clock, "Vanilla turn off the alarm clock please!"

"Ichigo...I'm too tired…" Vanilla said putting her head underneath her blankets, trying to plug out the noise from the alarm.

 _Beep...Beep...Beep..._

She tried ignoring it but it was honestly too annoying. She abruptly pushed off her blankets and aggressively smashed her hand down on the snooze button. She laid back onto her bed and put her hands over her eyes. It felt like 6 in the morning, the time she had to wake up at on every single weekday. She looked over at the clock and noticed the time. 10:03. She muttered a few unintelligible words before springing up from her bed and flipped Vanilla out of her bed.

"WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE! NO, FORGET BEING LATE, WE'RE ARE LATE!"

The time the sweet princes and Ichigo had agreed to meet up at was 10 o'clock. Ichigo rushed to get changed, she combed her hair and brushed her teeth...at the same time. She quickly put toothpaste onto her toothbrush. She was about to put her toothpaste into her hair, but Vanilla stopped her just in the nick of time.

"Ichigo!" She said pulling her hand away from her head, "Use the hairbrush, not the toothbrush!"

They both giggled at how thoughtless Ichigo was, then started rushing again. It was about 10:15 by the time they both finished getting ready. Well, Vanilla didn't exactly need to get ready. She just helped get Ichigo get ready...and not walk out the door in her pajamas.

"WE NEED TO GO RIGHT NOW!" Ichigo said running out the door, Vanilla in her bag.

"S-Slow down Ichigo," Vanilla screamed, "T-To F-F-Fast!"

That only made Ichigo go quicker.

They made it to the kitchen in less than a minute, Ichigo pulled out her deserts and put them in a box, wrote 'Happy Birthday Kashino' on the box, then rushed out to the courtyard. Vanilla was already outside of Ichigo's bag and was trailing right behind her. Ichigo could see the 3 sweet princes but as she began to run closer, she noticed their faces were contorted and seemed like they were discussing something secretive. Ichigo stood behind a column, eavesdropping into the conversation.

"I can't believe this...I can't believe this! Kashino!" Hanabusa yelled making Ichigo flinch. She had only ever seen Hanabusa get angry twice. Neither times had he looked or sounded this mad, "You have to tell Ichigo!"

"I know," Kashino said with a sigh, "I definitely know that."

"Ma-kun…" Andou said patting him on his back, "I know your parents don't support your baking career, but they went this far?"

"Yes, of course they would. They're still set on me becoming a doctor after all. They said to choose between Ichigo and my baking. I tried reasoning with them, but they wouldn't budge. They said that if I want to continue my career on this path to becoming a patissier, I would have to break up with her."

"Ichigo…" Vanilla whispered, "Surely he'll choose you."

"No! I can't let him ruin his dream just for me!" Ichigo said. She also knew that Kashino knew that she would never want to get in between his family - or his career.

"So what are you going to do Kashino?" Hanabusa said angrily, "Are you going to break up with her or not?"

"I...I'm going to break up with her." He said defeated, his head hanging low, "I know she would want me to do this. She would feel guilty if I didn't."

"Ma-kun…" Andou said patting him on the back again. They were quiet for a few minutes, the awkward silence making the tension even heavier. Ichigo decided now was a good time to come out. The conversation wasn't moving any further and all that was left was the silence. Maybe she could help brightened up the mood. She instantly regretted the decision to walk out. She should have just left the box of sweets and written a note saying she had a stomach ache. The moment she looked at Kashino a pit grew into her stomach. His chocolate brown eyes stared at her sadly.

"Hey you guys!" She says walking to them, "Happy birthday Kashino!"

Hanabusa and Andou greeted her but Kashino was quiet. Ichigo opened up her box of sweets and handed them over to Kashino.

"Enjoy!" She said pretending to laugh. She didn't want to make him feel bad, in fact, she wanted to make sure he didn't know that she was eavesdropping on the conversation a minute ago. Kashino stared at the sweets in silence then hugged her tightly. Ichigo blushed and hugged him back.

"Thank you." He whispered into her ear as his grip on her waist tightened. Ichigo could tell he was stressed out, and she actually knew why for once. It was because of her. The 2 sweet princes and 4 Sweet Spirits stared at the two and plastered fake and playful frowns onto their faces.

"Get a room you two!" Hanabusa said pretending to be angry.

"Agreed!" Chocolate said jokingly, shielding her eyes.

"Ah, I have a stomach ache so I'm going to go to the nurse…" Ichigo said, "I wish I could have celebrated your birthday more! And eaten some cake."

They all laughed again. They all knew Ichigo was a cake eating monster. Of course, everyone who met, or had a meal with her, knew that.

"Bye bye!" Ichigo said walking away with Vanilla, "talk to you guys tomorrow!"

She turned her body and began running. She ran faster than she had ever run before, trying to stop her tears from falling. Vanilla stayed quiet, knowing that this was going to happen anyways. She knew Ichigo was heartbroken, so she stayed quiet and hugged her.

"V-V-Vanilla!" Ichigo wailed, "I love him… I never told him I loved him, and now we're going to break up! I know that this is because of his parents and if he doesn't break up with me his career will most likely be ruined." She choked, letting her tears fall. It seemed like a nightmare to her. She had always thought it would be a happy ending with Kashino...they would get married...they would open up a bakery together...She cried even harder at those thoughts that seemed so far away and out of reach. Everything came shattering down with those 7 words.

 _'I'm going to break up with her.'_

It echoed in her mind over and over again.

They had made it to the infirmary and Ichigo was still a sobbing mess. She laid down on one of the beds and curled up, paralyzed. She knew she could cry her heart out here, no one ever came into the infirmary. They were careful to never hurt themselves. Everyone knew that if you were to hurt yourself as a patisserie, you would be set back for years. Hands were important in baking and you had to be quick in baking competitions.

"Hello?" A male voice said shocking Ichigo. The one day she wanted to be alone in the infirmary, a person had to walk in and a stranger at that. He looked around, Ichigo could see that he had a bruise on his arm, but it was nothing serious.

"Oh...Hello." She said wiping her tears away, but more kept falling. She tried to hide her face from the stranger but he had already seen her crying. He could also hear the sniffling. She was beyond embarrassed to be crying about a boy.

"What's wrong?" He said sitting down next to her. Not too close to make her uncomfortable, but just close enough to make her feel like he was listening closely.

"I-It's nothing." Ichigo began, then she burst out crying again.

"Oh, don't cry! I don't know what to do when girls cry…" He said nervously. He grabbed a bag and opened it up. It smelled delicious, the scent of chocolate overwhelmed the room.

"Here's a cookie…" He said handing her half of a fudge cookie nervously. Ichigo stopped crying and giggled at how nervous he was. His face was bright red and he was looking around the room awkwardly trying to avoid eye contact.

"Thank you…" She said taking the cookie and eating it, "This is delicious! It's crunch on the outside but soft and buttery on the inside, exactly how perfect cookies should be!"

"Thank you! I was just baking them for fun…" He said laughing, "I'm Shintaro Yoshinori! You can call me Shin."

"Oh, um, I'm Amano Ichigo. You can call me Ichigo." She held her hand out to shake his, "Nice to meet you Shin-chan."

"So you're Ichigo! Nice to meet you! I've heard a lot about you from Henri-sensei..." He said taking her hand and kissing it. She blushed. The only person she had ever known do that to her was Hanabusa, but he stopped after Kashino asked him to stop. She still wondered why Kashino asked him to stop… Kashino…

"Ah! I'm sorry Ichigo!" he said noticing how red she was, "That's a habit of my friend so I started doing it too and it became natural to me and I'm sorry and I don't know why I just did that and again-"

Ichigo giggled at how he rambled on. She liked how he made her laugh just like that, but then again, she laughed at most things, but he seemed to make her laugh so easily. Just his nervousness made her giggle and it brightened up her mood. She even stopped crying and was more focused on trying to get another cookie.

"It's okay!" Ichigo said smiling at him, "But in return for embarrassing me, we have to be friends!"

He smiled at her proposition, "Of course! I feel like we're going to be best friends already." His grin became bigger which made her grin wider as well.

"Agreed!"

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